What Are Mainers To Do With All Those Eclipse Glasses.

According to NASA, there are plenty of ways to keep the millions of eclipse glasses used last week out of landfills. NASA is urging you to hold onto your glasses for the next eclipse if they were produced by one of the 12 makers approved by NASA, as long as you don't puncture scratch or tear them they're good forever! 2024 will bring the next visible eclipse to Maine, and you can reuse any glasses with an ISO number of 2312-2.

Don't want to keep your eclipse glasses? Here are some suggestions:

Pop out the special film and recycle the paper frame, the film itself is not recyclable.

Offer them to local schools who may use them for astronomy activities.

Astronomers Without Borders is collecting unwanted eclipse glasses to redistribute to schools in Asia and South America, where an eclipse will pass thru in 2019.

I'm going to reuse the film from mine to incorporate into an art piece.I'll let you know how it turns out. The eclipse glasses are so dark that I was tempted to bring them along on my long flight during vacation to wear as a sleep mask. This was not a popular idea among my family members who thought I would look like a weirdo.